Monday, February 06, 2012

During the last few months of my pregnancy, my final project was working on the documentary 'Rising Sun Over Malaya' in collaboration with Novista, the same producers that produced the Highland Towers documentary.

It was a very eye opening and heart wrenching experience. I met people who actually survived working on the death railway, read and watched countless interviews with people who lived through this horrific time in our history. There were several days where I would drive home after work in tears thinking about all the stories of the survivors and how they have spent the rest of their lives trying to move on from the memories.

When we were shooting the re-enactment scenes, I remember watching the shoots and thinking to myself 'we're not making this up! all of this horrible stuff actually happened! this is not some story Lara (the producer) made up for fun. We really are re-enacting what the survivors told us. My God! '

Due to medical reasons I had to leave the project a few weeks before final completion so I am excited to see the final cut this Sunday 15 February 2012 when it premieres on Astro Channel 555 - History Channel 10 pm.

The synopsis of the documentary is as follows

The Second World War in Malaya from 1941-1945 was a time of darkness and despair - where innocent lives were lost and blood ran freely. The Japanese rule with an iron hand, slaughtering tens of thousands of Chinese citizens. They force young women to work as sex slaves, or ‘comfort women’ and trick others into working on the notorious ‘Death Railway’. The people of Malaya struggle for survival. When the Japanese surrender in 1945, Malaya plunges into a period of turmoil that brings it to the brink of civil war. But amidst the fire and ruins, sparks of resilience and courage grew. The painful war experience gave a great impetus to a new awakening. “Rising Sun Over Malaya” tells this little known story through the eyes of the people of Malaysia who had a personal observation of the occupation.

Saturday, February 04, 2012

If I could I would buy almost everything in this collection. And despite Galliano leaving Dior in early 2011 the brand has seen a rise in sales. With collections like these it's no wonder why. Its absolutely beautiful. Really goes back to the silhoutte which Mr Christian Dior himself made popular and sought after when he was designing.

Nuffnang

Biography

Sasha Bashir started out in the entertainment industry as a back up dancer for Malaysian award and music shows. After graduating from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Performing Arts, she returned to Malaysia and started working at the Malaysian National Theatre, Istana Budaya as the Assistant Director of Marketing and PR. During her time there, she still continued performing in live theatre shows with lead acting and dance roles in the productions Lady Swettenham, My Bollywood Summer, Titiwangsa and Emas 10. In 2006, Sasha hosted her first tv show Explorace - The Extreme Journey on Malaysia's No 1 tv station, TV3. In 2007, she hosted Beauty Secrets from the East. In 2009, she co-created, co-produced and hosted a documentary about Asian dances titled DANSA. It showed on TV3 and NTV7 in 2009. Sasha also published her very first coffee table book based on the documentary. Titled DANSA - A Dance Journey, this 200 page hard cover books featured over 250 photos taken while shooting the 13 episode documentary with a special 'behind the scenes' chapter. The book is available in all major Malaysian bookstores for RM 130. In 2011, Dansa returned to NTV7 with a second season with all new dances and locations. Sasha is currently working on her second book Dansa - The Journey continues and is due to be in bookstores by the end of 2012. A children's book which is being published for charity will also be released by early 2013. Sasha is currently working as one of the panel of producers for the NTV7 documentary program NTV7 which airs every Tuesday at 7.30 pm.